Week 1 odds - Big Green favored by 19 at WMU: shameless, tickets, hype, and mononucleosis

The ES is getting jacked up for the FB season. Fall preseason camp is underway!  Looks like tix to the Oregon game are impossible below $160.  Thank GOD I have a pair.

ODDS
Week one, MGM Grand in Vegas lists the Big Green are favored by 19 at WMU.  You going to the game?  The ES will be there! Let's 'gate`- let me know.   Odds from Vegas:

Utah is favored by 5 at home over Michigan.  LOL.  
TCU is favored by 14 at Minnesota.
Illinois is favored by 16 at home over Ball State
Penn State is favored by 7 at Temple
Stanford is favored by 12-1/2 at Northwestern
Nebraska is favored by 6 at home over BYU
Alabama is favored by 10-1/2 at home over Wisconsin
Marshall is favored by 7 at home over Purdue
Ohio State is favored by 11 at Virginia Tech

SHAMELESS MATCHUPS :
Rutgers vs Norfolk St
Iowa vs Illinois St
Maryland vs Richmond
Indiana vs Southern Illinois

HYPE VIDEO SMASHMOUTH ON MICHIGAN
I love the new hype video for the Spartans - an amazing amount of shots of the Rose Bowl, the Cotton Bowl... but moreover, dominated by our kicking the crap out of Michigan the last 7 years.  Certainly, the priority of smashing scUM, and the stupid hype over Harbaugh in Ann Arbor, have festered the Spartan braintrust to create this focus in the video.  It's lovely.  You should watch it, and see scUM's Devin Gardner get planted time, and time, and time, and time again into the ground.

Disgusting, unfortunately for Hicks.  

LET'S TALK ABOUT MONO
What IS a bummer is Darian Hicks, who has mono.  He might be out a month, but otherwise, we are healthy!  About mono: the ES had mono the day he was inducted into ADP at Michigan State in 1987 ("mono" is part of my official fraternity nickname), and the ES had it the week after when he attended the Spartans' defeat of Indiana to advance to the Rose Bowl.  It sucked.  But, I played :), albeit on a different stage - Hicks can too????  Be well, first - thankfully it's a month before Oregon.  Hicks was burned repeatedly against Ohio State and against Baylor - but hopefully, we can plug those holes.

ES Game Day: Purdon't Won't

#8 Michigan State Spartans at # 97 Purdue Boilermakes
October 11, 2014.  3:30 pm ET.
Ross-Ade Stadium, West Lafayette, IN
ABC-TV

Weather: 59 and sunny.

Sagarin Ratings:  MSU #14, Purdue #97
Line: MSU favored by 21

Predictions & Previews:

• Lafayette Journal Courier: MSU 36-12
• Hammer & Rails: Crespo, MSU 30-7, Schneider, Pur 24-21; Van Gessel, MSU 34-10; Zimmerman, MSU 45-20; T-Mill, MSU 34-10
• Gold and Black: Charters, MSU 28-14; Clardie, MSU 31-10; Karpick, MSU 28-16; Neubert,  MSU 27-13; Baugh, MSU 27-14
• Freep/Rexrode: MSU 38-10
• Lansing State Journal:  Couch, MSU 41-13; Solari, MSU 37-10; Calloway, MSU 41-7
• ESPN.com: MSU 38-10
• OddsShark: MSU 41.9- 22.5
• CFN/Scout.com:  MSU 41-16
• Detroit Sports Site:  MSU 37-17
• Picks and Parlays: MSU 34-17
• The Power Rank: MSU by 11.7
• CBSSports: MSU unanimous

ES sez:  Well, ahem, later next week,  the ES will discuss the insanity of Mark Hollis' considering penalizing the student body by reducing their ticket allotment (isn't it COLLEGE???? yeah, let's cut out the college out of college sports).  The fact that ESPN's Brian Bennett seemingly agrees with this viewpoint once again underscores the fact that students don't matter when the media is paying the bills.  Read this: 

• "If students don't want to go or stay through the game -- particularly in the upper-deck areas -- then I have no problem with the schools cutting those sections back. Students aren't obligated to attend or stay through home football games. Likewise, tuition does not guarantee good seats to those games."

This is about the dumbest argument ever made, from both a commercial and an amateur point of view.  Reducing access to students who will be your future ticket sales?  Biting the hand that feeds?  Actually, tuition SHOULD guarantee good seats.  The argument here is so backwards from both a branding and commercial standpoint, it defies logic.  Absolutely Stupid.  Anyhow... 

But, as far as this weekend's game:   Oh My.  Poor Purdon't.  They will be taking on the Spartans after the wrong end of a quarter of football in which the Spartans fell asleep... After dismantling Nebraska for 85% of the game, MSU nodded off and nearly paid the price.  Not this week.

The problem for Purdue is - they really don't.  They are arguably the WORST team in the B1G Ten this year.  The Big Green is arguably the best team... and the defending champions need to make a stride after last week's scare.  

Let's look at the basic stats:

• Purdue Total Offense #102, 351.8 ypg vs MSU Total Defense #11, 297 ypg
• Purdue Rushing Offense #67, 170 ypg vs MSU Rushing Defense: MSU #4, 72 ypg
• Purdue Passing Offense #104, 181.8 ypg vs MSU Passing Defense #48, 225 ypg
• MSU Total Offense #24, 497.4 ypg vs Purdue Total Defense #76, 408.6
• MSU Passing Offense: #51, 257.2 ypg vs Purdue Passing Defense #105, 273.5 ypg
• MSU Rushing Offense #22, 239.2 ypg vs Purdue Rushing Defense #48, 135.2 ypg

In every category, offense vs defense, Michigan State overwhelmingly ranks as superior.  And, MSU has had the tougher schedule, playing at Oregon and vs Nebraska.   Not much more needs to be said.  The ES sees an absolute demolition tomorrow in West Lafayette:  the Hammer will fall off the Rails.  

MSU 55, Purdon't 13.